Consoles aren't good enough for Ray Tracing...

[From Henrik, via Wikipedia]

I remember seeing articles and thought pieces before the release of the current gen console hardware regarding their ability to perform ray tracing (RT, for short) in games. Overall, I think they were pretty pessimistic on the whole and, especially towards release, the Series S was never really considered as a serious RT machine. 

However, since release we've had several games that have proven that there was little to fear and that, if integrated at an early stage in a game's design or within the engine design, ray tracing is perfectly possible. 

So, it's surprising to see this article on Tom's Hardware stating the opposite.

Analyse This: The Story of Hyper Light Drifter... (Part 4)

Into the unknown...

I noticed that, recently, this series had been getting a few views again and I remembered that I had practically written two more entries and never posted them. So I figured that I'd finish what I'd started...

From here on out, we're in pure speculative and analytical territory. These are all observations and connections I've made based on what's in the game... but they're just that: Things my mind sees.

Just a reminder that this series discusses aspects of the game Hyper Light Drifter and will veer wildly into spoiler territory from the get-go.

Enjoy!

Does AMD's Dominance Even Matter...?

 

Over the last year or so, a lot has come to light about how the current generation of AMD's graphics cards are superior to Nvidia's in various ways. While I will mention them here, my intention isn't to dive into these features... the point of this post is to question if they even matter.